Herford
Encyclopedia
Herford (ˈhɛɐ̯fɔɐ̯t) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...

, Germany, located in the lowlands between the hill chains of the Wiehen Hills and the Teutoburg Forest
Teutoburg Forest
The Teutoburg Forest is a range of low, forested mountains in the German states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia which used to be believed to be the scene of a decisive battle in AD 9...

. It is the capital of the district of Herford
Herford (district)
Herford is a Kreis in the northeastern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Minden-Lübbecke, Lippe, the urban district of Bielefeld, and the districts Gütersloh and Osnabrück.-History:...

.

Geographic location

The former Hanseatic town of Herford is situated in the chain of hills south of the Wiehen Hills (Ravensberg Hills). The highest place is the Dornberg (240 m) in the Schwarzenmoor district; the lowest point (56 m) is located in the Werretal in the Falkendiek district. The River Aa
Westfälische Aa
The Westfälische Aa is a short river in the Westphalia region of Germany, left tributary of the Werre. It is formed by the confluence of two small streams in Bielefeld-Milse. It flows into the Werre in Herford....

 joins the river Werre
Werre
The Werre is a river in the Detmold region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, left tributary of the Weser. Its source is near Horn-Bad Meinberg. The Werre flows generally north through the towns Detmold, Lage, Bad Salzuflen, Herford and Löhne. It flows into the Weser close to Bad Oeynhausen. The...

 in the centre of the town. The Stuckenberg is located east of the town.

Neighbouring towns

  • West: Enger
    Enger
    Enger is a town in the Herford district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.-Geography:Enger is situated between the Teutoburg Forest and the Wiehen Hills, approx...

    , Hiddenhausen
    Hiddenhausen
    Hiddenhausen is a municipality in the district of Herford, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.-Geography:Hiddenhausen is situated approx. 6 km north-west of the centre of Herford and 15 km north-east of Bielefeld.-Division of the town:...

  • North: Löhne
    Löhne
    Löhne is a town in the district of Herford, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.-Geography:Löhne is situated on the river Werre, approx. 8 km north of Herford and 20 km south-west of Minden.-Neighbouring places:* Hüllhorst* Bad Oeynhausen...

  • North-East: Vlotho
    Vlotho
    Vlotho is a town in the district of Herford, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.-Geography:Vlotho is located along the Weser river, south of the Wiehengebirge, bordering on the Ravensberger Hügelland in the west, Lipperland in the south, and the Weserbergland in the east...

  • South-East: Bad Salzuflen
    Bad Salzuflen
    Bad Salzuflen is a town in the Lippe district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. At the end of 2006 it had 54415 inhabitants.-Details:Bad Salzuflen is a spa town and is known for its saltwater springs and thermal baths. In former times the town profited from the salt trade...

     (Lippe
    Lippe
    Lippe is a Kreis in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Herford, Minden-Lübbecke, Höxter, Paderborn, Gütersloh, and district-free Bielefeld, which forms the region Ostwestfalen-Lippe....

     district)
  • South-West: Bielefeld
    Bielefeld
    Bielefeld is an independent city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 323,000, it is also the most populous city in the Regierungsbezirk Detmold...

    .

Districts

  • Altstädter Feldmark
  • Neustädter Feldmark
  • Radewiger Feldmark
  • Diebrock¹
  • Eickum¹
  • Elverdissen¹
  • Falkendiek¹
  • Herringhausen¹
  • Laar¹
  • Schwarzenmoor¹
  • Stedefreund¹

  • History

    The town was founded in 789 by Charlemagne
    Charlemagne
    Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...

     in order to guard a ford crossing the narrow Werre river. A century later, Matilda
    Matilda of Ringelheim
    Saint Mathilda was the wife of King Henry I of Germany, the first ruler of the Saxon Ottonian dynasty, thereby Duchess consort of Saxony from 912 and German Queen from 919 until 936. Their eldest son Otto succeeded his father as German King and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 962...

    , daughter of Theudebert, duke of Saxony
    Saxony
    The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

    , grew up in the abbey of Herford; she was a descendant of the Saxon leader Widukind
    Widukind
    Widukind was a pagan Saxon leader and the chief opponent of Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars. Widukind was the leader of the Saxons against the Frankish king Charlemagne...

    . In Herford she met Henry the Fowler, who later became king of Germany.

    In late medieval times Herford was a member of the Hanseatic League
    Hanseatic League
    The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...

    . It was a Free Imperial City, i.e. it was directly subordinated to the emperor. This status was lost after the Peace of Westphalia
    Peace of Westphalia
    The Peace of Westphalia was a series of peace treaties signed between May and October of 1648 in Osnabrück and Münster. These treaties ended the Thirty Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch Republic, with Spain formally recognizing the...

     (1648), when Herford was annexed by Brandenburg-Prussia
    Brandenburg-Prussia
    Brandenburg-Prussia is the historiographic denomination for the Early Modern realm of the Brandenburgian Hohenzollerns between 1618 and 1701. Based in the Electorate of Brandenburg, the main branch of the Hohenzollern intermarried with the branch ruling the Duchy of Prussia, and secured succession...

    . It was administered within the Province of Westphalia
    Province of Westphalia
    The Province of Westphalia was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1815 to 1946.-History:Napoleon Bonaparte founded the Kingdom of Westphalia, which was a client state of the First French Empire from 1807 to 1813...

     following the Napoleonic Wars
    Napoleonic Wars
    The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

    , and made part of the new state North Rhine-Westphalia
    North Rhine-Westphalia
    North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...

     after World War II
    World War II
    World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

    .

    Sights

    • The Herford Minster (Münsterkirche) is a late Romanesque
      Romanesque architecture
      Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

       hall church
      Hall church
      A hall church is a church with nave and side aisles of approximately equal height, often united under a single immense roof. The term was first coined in the mid-19th century by the pioneering German art historian Wilhelm Lübke....

      , built about 1220-1250 for the Fürstabtei Herford (Herford monastery). It is one of the earliest hall churches in Germany
    • St. Jacob's (Jakobikirche/Radewiger Kirche) is a late Gothic
      Gothic architecture
      Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

       hall church (1330)
    • St. John's (St. Johannis/Neustädter Kirche) is a late Gothic hall church (1340)
    • St. Mary's (St. Marien auf dem Berge) is also a late Gothic hall church. It was completed about 1325/50 and part of a monastery
    • Town hall, built 1913-16 by Paul Kanold in Neo-Baroque forms
    • Neustädter Rathaus (former town hall), built 1600, aesthetic pediment 1930 removed, 1988/89 reconstructed
    • Remensnider-Haus, Brüderstraße 26, a late Gothic half-timbered building from 1521
    • Kantorhaus, Elisabethstraße 2, a half-timbered building, about 1484/1494
    • Holland 21, half-timbered building, 1554
    • Holland 39, half-timbered building, 1559
    • Bürgermeisterhaus, Höckerstraße 4, a late Gothic stone building from 1538 with a stepped gable similar to houses in Münster
      Münster
      Münster is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also capital of the local government region Münsterland...

       and Bielefeld
      Bielefeld
      Bielefeld is an independent city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 323,000, it is also the most populous city in the Regierungsbezirk Detmold...

    • Frühherrenstraße 11, a Renaissance building, 1591
    • Wulfert-Haus, Neuer Markt 2 with a brick-built Renaissance gable, 1560

    Museums

    The MARTa Herford, a museum for contemporary art and design, housed in a building designed by Frank Gehry
    Frank Gehry
    Frank Owen Gehry, is a Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...

    , has been open to the public since May 2005. Its exhibits change regularly. The current artistic director is Roland Nachtigäller.

    The Daniel-Pöppelmann-Haus in Herford explores the history of the city, and the Memorial and Meeting Place Cell Block, in the basement of the city hall, documents the persecution and the obliteration of minorities. Plans to construct a museum of city history next to the city hall and the Münster church have been postponed.

    Music and theatre

    Herford is the seat of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie
    Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie
    The Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie is a German symphony orchestra based in Herford. It was founded in 1950 and, along with Philharmonie Südwestfalen and Landesjugendorchester NRW, is one of the 'official' orchestras of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia...

     (Northwest German Philharmonic) which performs regularly in the Stadtpark Schützenhof as well as many neighbouring cities in North Rhine-Westphalia. Eugene Tzigane is the principal conductor designate (2010–present). The current director is Andreas Kuntze.

    The Stadttheater (Municipal theatre) provides seats for 706 viewers and it is served by visiting theatre companies.

    Events at regular intervals

    • Easter Fair around Easter (Oster-Kirmes)
    • Jazz Festival May - Performances of different jazz artists in a couple of bars
    • Organ Summer
    • Visions Fair June
    • Summer Stage Summer (Sommerbühne) - Concerts at the square between city hall and market hall
    • Hoekerfest August - Municipal festival with plenty of events in the city centre
    • City Fair October - In the city centre
    • Herbstzeitlos (Autumnally timeless) Autumn - Exhibition at the former depot site
    • Wine Festival Autumn - At Gänsemarkt
    • Christmas Lights December - Municipal Christmas fair (Weihnachtsmarkt)

    Military

    Herford is the location of the headquarters of the 1st (United Kingdom) Armoured Division and Signal Regiment part of British Forces Germany
    British Forces Germany
    British Forces Germany , is the name for British Armed Forces service personnel and civilians based in Germany. It was first established following the Second World War as the British Army of the Rhine ....

    . Currently there are 870 soldiers serving at three camps (Wentworth Barracks, Hammersmith Barracks, and Harewood Barracks). Herford has a British military postal address of BFPO 15. Including civilian staff and families, 2200 British people live in Herford.

    The British Forces Broadcasting Service
    British Forces Broadcasting Service
    The British Forces Broadcasting Service provides radio and television programmes for HM Forces, and their dependents, in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Brunei, Canada, Cyprus, the Falkland Islands, Germany, Gibraltar, Kosovo, the Middle East, Northern Ireland and Tristan da Cunha as well as a live satellite...

     (BFBS) studio for Germany was located in Wentworth Barracks until 2009 when it moved to Hohne.

    Connections

    Herford is twinned with: Voiron
    Voiron
    Voiron is a commune in the Isère department in south-eastern France.- History :Voiron long formed part of Savoy, but in 1355 was exchanged by the count with France for Faucigny and Gex.Historical population:* 1901: 12,625- Geography :Voiron stands at a height of 950 ft., on the Morge Voiron...

    , Isère
    Isère
    Isère is a department in the Rhône-Alpes region in the east of France named after the river Isère.- History :Isère is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Dauphiné...

    , France Quedlinburg
    Quedlinburg
    Quedlinburg is a town located north of the Harz mountains, in the district of Harz in the west of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. In 1994 the medieval court and the old town was set on the UNESCO world heritage list....

    , Saxony-Anhalt
    Saxony-Anhalt
    Saxony-Anhalt is a landlocked state of Germany. Its capital is Magdeburg and it is surrounded by the German states of Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia.Saxony-Anhalt covers an area of...

    , Germany Hinckley
    Hinckley
    Hinckley is a town in southwest Leicestershire, England. It has a population of 43,246 . It is administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council...

    , Leicestershire
    Leicestershire
    Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...

    , England Fredericia
    Fredericia
    Fredericia is a town located in Fredericia municipality in the eastern part of the Jutland peninsula in Denmark, in a sub-region known locally as Trekanten, or The Triangle...

    , Syddanmark, Denmark
    Denmark
    Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

     Gorzów Wielkopolski
    Gorzów Wielkopolski
    Gorzów Wielkopolski is a city in western Poland, on the Warta river. It is the biggest city in the Lubusz Voivodeship with 125,149 inhabitants...

    , Lubusz Voivodeship
    Lubusz Voivodeship
    - Administrative division :Lubusz Voivodeship is divided into 14 counties : 2 city counties and 12 land counties. These are further divided into 83 gminas....

    , Poland
    Poland
    Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

     Logan, Utah
    Logan, Utah
    -Layout of the City:Logan's city grid originates from its Main and Center Street block, with Main Street running north and south, and Center east and west. Each block north, east, south, or west of the origin accumulates in additions of 100 , though some streets have non-numeric names...

    , USA

    City-friendships include: San Jose, California
    San Jose, California
    San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...

    , USA Quincy, Illinois
    Quincy, Illinois
    Quincy, known as Illinois' "Gem City," is a river city along the Mississippi River and the county seat of Adams County. As of the 2010 census the city held a population of 40,633. The city anchors its own micropolitan area and is the economic and regional hub of West-central Illinois, catering a...

    , USA Vodice
    Vodice, Croatia
    Vodice is a town in the Šibenik-Knin County, Croatia. It borders the Adriatic Sea and has a population of 8,902 .-History:Vodice was first mentioned in 1402 although it was founded already in the Roman times as Arausa. Its name derives from the word meaning water sources which supplied the whole...

    , Šibenik-Knin County
    Šibenik-Knin County
    Šibenik-Knin County is a county in Croatia, located in north-central Dalmatia. Its center is Šibenik; other notable towns are Knin, Drniš and Skradin....

    , Croatia
    Croatia
    Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...


    Born in Herford

    • late 13th century, Heinrich von Herford
    • 1610, Otto Tachenius, surgeon
      Surgeon
      In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...

       and apothecary
      Apothecary
      Apothecary is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist and some caregivers....

    • 1662, Daniel Pöppelmann, Rococo
      Rococo
      Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...

       and Baroque
      Baroque
      The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

       architect
      Architect
      An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

      , builder of the Dresdener Zwinger
    • 1686, Christian Klausing, organ-builder
    • 1705, Gerhard Friedrich Müller, Siberia
      Siberia
      Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

      -explorer
    • 1842, Nikolaus Dürkopp
    • 1846, Friedrich Adolf Richter
    • 1868, Friedrich Bockelmann
    • 1875, Carl Severing
      Carl Severing
      Carl Wilhelm Severing was a German Social Democrat politician during the Weimar era.He was Interior Minister of Prussia from 1920 to 1926, Minister of the Interior from 1928 to 1930 and Interior Minister of Prussia again from 1930 to 1932...

      , Politician(SPD
      Social Democratic Party of Germany
      The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...

      )
    • 1882, Otto Weddigen
      Otto Weddigen
      Otto Eduard Weddigen was a German U-boat commander during World War I.-Biography and career:He was born in Herford and started his military career in the Kaiserliche Marine in 1901...

      , submarine
      Submarine
      A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

      -commander in World War I
      World War I
      World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

    • 1883, Hermann Höpker-Aschoff
      Hermann Höpker-Aschoff
      Hermann Höpker-Aschoff was a German politician and jurist. He was the first President of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany....

      , politician (DDP, FDP)
    • 1886, Heinrich Höcker, Politician (SPD
      Social Democratic Party of Germany
      The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...

      )
    • 1892, Karl Steinhoff
      Karl Steinhoff
      Karl Steinhoff was a Minister-President of the German state of Brandenburg, then part of East Germany, and later served as East Germany's Minister of the Interior....

    • 1892, Reinhard Maack
    • 1897, Friederike Nadig
    • 1897, Erich Gutenberg
      Erich Gutenberg
      Erich Gutenberg was an influential German economist.He is considered the founder of modern German business studies after World War II. Gutenberg used microeconomy to explain the functioning of the enterprise. Therefore he also developed a new production function...

    • 1909, Heinz Röttger
    • 1930, Hans-Heinz Emons, academic, Minister for Education and Youth in the last East German government
    • 1947, Elke Wülfing
    • 1947, Dr. Wilhelm Leber
      Wilhelm Leber
      Wilhelm Leber is a German mathematician and minister in the New Apostolic Church.-Life:Wilhelm Leber was born in Herford in Westphalia. In 1975 he earned his doctorate in mathematics at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main with a dissertation entitled Konvergenzbegriffe für...

    • 1954, Marian Gold
      Marian Gold
      Marian Gold is the lead singer of the German synthpop group, Alphaville.His multi-octave tenor voice appears in Alphaville's 1980s pop singles, including "Forever Young", "Big in Japan", "Sounds Like a Melody" and "Dance with Me".Since the early 1990s, Gold has taken Alphaville from a studio-based...

    • 1955, Christian Bogner
    • 1960, Karl-Heinz Wiesemann
      Karl-Heinz Wiesemann
      Karl-Heinz Wiesemann is the 96th Bishop of Speyer.Wiesemann was born in Herford, North Rhine-Westphalia in the archdiocese of Paderborn. He became a chaplain on the 10th of October 1985 in Rome. He later served as a priest in Bösperde, a suburb of Menden and provost of St...

    • 1960, Ralph Herforth, actor
    • 1961, Wiglaf Droste
    • 1965, Thomas Helmer
      Thomas Helmer
      Thomas Helmer is a former German footballer.His preferred playing position was sweeper, but he was primarily deployed as a central defender....

    • 1971, Martin Heckmanns
    • 1972, Eva Haßmann
    • 1982, Philipp Heithölter
      Philipp Heithölter
      Philipp Heithölter is a German footballer.-Career:Heithölter grew up in Herford, where he played for SV Sundern 08 and SC Herford. After one season in the Oberliga Westfalen with Fichte Bielefeld, he joined then second division club Arminia Bielefeld and appeared in four matches in the 2003–04...

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